New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission — Attraction in Wayne

Removed one star for NJ MVCs in general here with the must have an appointment thing. I had planned to renew online as I usually do but for some reason this time it said I could not renew online and must make an appointment. Normally this would not be a big deal except my license had just expired a day previous and the soonest appointment they had available at the time was middle to late April (this was in middle of Feb) so basically there was no way to fix my license for over 2 months. I really find this to be messed up - especially considering they had open appointment slots for same day CDL renewal at every location, every day that I looked. To me this seems really unfair. I know you may be saying they need to be able to renew as they can't work without one but as it happens I need my license to work as well and it ended up costing me a lot of time and opportunity to not be able to. I understand only having so much time but be a little more fair with your scheduling and allow walk-ins for emergency situations. If it gets to be 5 o'clock and the person is still waiting they will have to try another day - the risk comes with trying to walk-in. That said I got lucky and some body canceled and I managed to grab an appointment finally a whole month earlier than previously possible. The place was clean and the wait was minimal. Staff was friendly and for me in and out renewing my license, new photo and upgrade to real id and back out the door in about 20 minutes. That is exceptionally quick for a bureaucracy if you ask me! Granted I still have to wait 2 weeks to get my license in the mail so it's not perfect but all and all very impressed with how quickly they got me taken care of. Also, having the boxes of pens available at every window containing maybe 50 pens of quite decent quality, I forget what brand but it was definably a name brand such as Bic or I want to say papermate of mid range and above quality definitely not the bottom of the barrel option! Before living in NJ I lived in CT where they also had pens available but these pens were the very worst of the worst - no name brand pens that barely write and if you're really lucky MIGHT have enough ink to complete your forms before running dry which meant you now needed a second pen to finish a few check boxes on your form and now you have a cheap pen that still has ink in it and it is eagerly waiting to leak ink all over you pocket ruining whatever you are wearing. (yes this is a real life account that happened to me);and does CT have them at every window life NJ? Of course not, you have to leave your spot in que and then desperately hope you have the exact change needed to purchase the world's worst pens (2 times) from a bubblegum machine style vending machine that which cost far more than one would normally expect to pay for a high end disposable pen which I don't know why I'm surprised - I mean they literally hold their customers captive and can force them to pay whatever premium they wish just like every other motor vehicle agency. I mean it's practically torn right out of an episode of the Simpsons where you find homer (yourself) at Selma's window who is chain smoking a pack of laramie seemingly just a little to eager to assault the form you've now filled out 3 times due to some insignificant mistakes with her red REJECTED rubber stamp and then she turns to her coworker at the next window who looks a little too similar for it to be a coincidence named Patty who joins her sister in mocking you and cackling to each other and then sending you to the back of the line to make you start all over again and it pretty much plays out like this at every agency throughout the country so of course they over charge for crappy pens in NJ as well but that's the thing - they don't over charge you for crappy pens,!they don't even over charge you for good pens, the fact is they don't charge you for the pen either which again is a fairly decent pen which if you reach out in almost any direction you would likely be within reach of dozens of these free pens!...

I took my driving test today; and, the instructor was horrendous. He wouldn't let me fix my parallel parking; he literally said I was unable to do it when I just wanted to adjust it closer to the cone. Next, he told me to drive ahead and make a left--I was so nervous when he made that comment about me not being able to do it that I moved into the wrong lane.

I spent so much time waiting for this appointment: five hours and thirty minutes of my time totaling $360 on lessons, a lot of time driving on the road, and in the line waiting for them to check my papers including the vehicle only to have this instructor fail me in under a minute or less. It’s criminal that’s what it is.

When we were done with the test, he shoved the examination checklist into my permit: he did not even do me the courtesy to go over it or give any feedback. Me and my family spent a lot of time trying to decipher what he wrote and even after spending time on it we genuinely could not figure out at all what he meant. He literally wrote in the comments section of the form that I should ask him (Stephen) . . . How would I know to do that if he just snuck it in the paper and straight up ran with his tail behind his legs when the test was over? The only words we could make out is him writing fail in large letters twice on the paper: once on the top corner, and another in the middle.

When he was getting out of the car, I heard from my younger sibling that he said “I failed, I failed” repeatedly out loud. It’s almost like the man has no manners: I should be the one informing my family if I failed or not—not you. What gives you the right to tell my family if I passed or failed without you even telling me in the car?

My younger sibling noticed that I wasn’t the only one he was failing, everyone that took it with him were quickly being failed—It was like he had a better place to be. . . . A better use of his time, or he was just tripping on power.

If you’re reading this Stephen, I’ll tell you this.

You should tell people how strict you are as an examiner because every examiner has a different itch. You should spend time giving oral feedback after the exam so us students can improve. You should fix your hand-writing so it’s legible and the way you wrote fail in huge letters you should write your feedback that way too. Your feedback needs to be more explicit on paper: the way you wrote it felt like you were in a hurry and needed to use the restroom. You should respect our time and not rush us during our road test. You should not discuss if the student failed or passed with the family without the student’s consent.

It’s not hard to take out a little time out of your life to be nice to someone.

Since you couldn’t give me detailed feedback, here’s my...

Some of the workers at this location appear to be rather discriminatory / prejudiced and incredibly rude . My mother came in today for her knowledge test and was refused translation ( she doesn’t speak English very well ) , In an incredibly rude manner . I never go out of my way to leave a bad comment but I feel this time it’s necessary. The lady who was meant to be helping her kept rolling her eyes and making disrespectful comments ( such as “ I’m too tiered to be repeating myself” ) ( even went as far as yelling at her for not understanding) for not speaking English. My mother struggled but did as she was told in the visual exam . However , the lady clearly had a problem with her from the start due to her being a Spanish Speaker and after making some very rude comments/ gestures she told her to go get the vision exam done somewhere else, adding that she would not be “dealing with it .”

Even after my mother attempted to ask many times what she was doing wrong as best as she could( which apparently was not being able to understand what row she was asked to read ) , as well as asking if she could bring in someone to translate , she was refused by her saying “ we don’t speak Spanish here “ in an annoyed tone.

After not understanding what she needed to do after the exam , We explained the situation to the front desk worker , and she nicely told us what we needed to do

As far as I know hundreds of Hispanic and Latino people attend this location , so it was incredibly disappointing to see such treatment in this facility and in 2024, even though many other Latinos work here. As far as I know there are even state laws that indicate the rights of proper translation for everyone in such facilities when requested , even so , a simple answer such as “ I cannot help you , please come back another day “ would’ve been enough. This should basic social etiquette . It’s truly a shame when people in these positions that are meant to be helpful are allowed to speak in such ways to others , as there is no need to make someone feel humiliated or ashamed for not understanding a language in a location where Latinos come in everyday.

Although some of the other workers were helpful, this was a truly horrible/worrying situation and no one working in customer service should be this disrespectful to someone trying their best or going out of their way to be rude.

I hope no one else has to receive this treatment for simply attempting to take a knowledge test or anything else because of their language since everyone should have the same opportunity and I would say respect given the situation. Even so , a little of patience and kindness goes a long way and there’s no need to...